Carpenter Breaks Previous Scrabble Point Record

theodp writes "Unimpressed by Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game? Think Don Larsen's perfect World Series game was no big deal? How about Michael Cresta's 830-point Scrabble game? Not only did Cresta shatter a 13 year-old record for the highest sanctioned Scrabble score in North America, he also set a new record for the most points on a single turn — 365, for QUIXOTRY."

Comments

"Quixtory" and "Vrows" ??

[Average_Joe_Sixpack]

Is this the English or Klingon version?

Re:"Quixtory" and "Vrows" ??

[gEvil (beta)]

'Quixotry' is a variant of 'quixotic,' which means (from Merriam-Webster) "foolishly impractical especially in the pursuit of ideals; especially : marked by rash lofty romantic ideas or extravagantly chivalrous action." The word derives from Cervantes' Don Quixote.

Klingon Scrabble?

[chowdy]

What kind of petaQ would play scrabble?

CSI

[aadvancedGIR]

I just had an horrible vision of this guy being crucified to a windmill by some other player.

Daft words....

[tomknight]

What annoys me about Scrabble is the dictionary used. The rules I possess state the Chambers 20th Century is to be used (actually a problem as my edition hails from 1908 and lacks a fair few words), but now you are required to use the authorised Scrabble (R)(C)(TM)(IP) dictionary which has a whole load of bollocks two letter words. No longer is Scrabble about vocabulary - simply memorising swathes of daft vowel/consonant combinations seems to work. Yes, there is a difference.

Re:Daft words....

[nagora]

Indeed. The "Official" Scrabble dictionary is not even a dictionary. It's just a long list of words, many many of which are in fact illegal under the rules as they are foreign. We play with a Concise Oxford with allowances to appeal to the Shorter Oxford (which is in the other room and a pain to carry about) only if the player can correctly define the word.

The "Official" Scrabble dictionary is just a marketing toy and of no interest to either serious players nor ones out for a simple, fun game. Anally-retentive boring bastards, on the other hand, love showing off their ability to robotically reel off lists of words which they have little or no understanding of. The best solution is not to play with morons like that.

Re:Daft words....

[LargeWu]

Most experienced Scrabble players aren't just playing the two letter words. They're playing 5,6 and 7 letter words that also have to make two letter words in order to fit on the board. Plus they're playing these in the endgame, which might make the difference in winning or losing.

Not knowing the 2 letter words for a Scrabble player is like not knowing how to code Hello World.

Re:Daft words....

[DarkFencer]

I dunno. You feel free to play all those garbage two-letter words. I'll play from a real vocabulary, and we'll see who wins. I'm betting the guy with the 835 point game that started this whole thing didn't once play the word 'ao'.

I actually would be surprised if he didn't use those B.S. two letter words. No - he wouldn't have ended his turn with one two letter word - but there's a good chance he spelled a long word, which formed a bunch of two letter words at once.

Re:Daft words....

[mikael]

It's the same in just about every game - even with the platform video games. You could play Super Mario just to complete every level as quickly as possible and not care about collecting every gold star and coin. Alternatively, you could take as long as you liked in order to get every last coin and star. In this case, you would have to know every secret hiding place, combination move and portal.

If you wanted to play those games that have skill levels with high scores but with no save feature, then you would eventually reach a point where the only way to get a new high score was to get a perfect score at the very beginning. Otherwise, there is no point continuing.

Then for those cable TV settop box games with cash prizes, there is a financial incentive for knowing how to win a game, either through skill or AI programming.

My favourite story was when the amusement arcade manufacturers came out with Trivial Pursuit video games for pubs and bars. Initially, revenues were high since the machines were a novelty and the punters didn't get the answers right. Then, paradoxically, (at least to the owners), as the number of punters went up the takings actually went down, until the machines were actually making a loss. Research revealed that the punters had gone down the local library, brushed up on their general knowledge and started to treat the machines as nothing more than pop quiz ATMs to pay for their drinks.

Strictly the Queen's English when I play?

[mrjb]

Yeah, that's a very convenient way to cheat. After all 'Colour' is worth more points than 'Color'.

“Kwidgibo”

[Lethyos]

“A, uh, big, dum, balding, North American ape.”

Re:“Kwidgibo”

[SpooForBrains]

JOZXYQK!

"... jozikskeh?"
"It's a cat word! It's the noise you make when you get your genital organs trapped in something"
"Is it in the dictionary?"
"It could be, if you're reading in the nude and you close the book too quick"

I find the attempts to dismiss it as humorous

[Shivetya]

Essentially competition scrabble is tiered like similar games (chess, checkers). Hence you have an elitist group that looks down on others and seems to have no problem dismissing the accomplishments of others. Basically the old "we're much smarter than them, its just a fluke, DUMB luck". In other words, how can they give any credit to their accomplishment as they would never associate with the likes of those "people"

Two guys both out playing to win, just not playing to win by rules established by the high brows. Of course they could take risks, they are more concerned with the fun aspects than the competitve ones. That alone puts them higher up in the scrabble echelon for me as they remember one of the most important parts of gaming; having fun

Record, says who?

[Anonymous Coward]

So, basically, two guys claim to have been playing Scrabble in a basement when miraculously one of them spell a dubiously-admitted word riddled with rare letters on a triple bonus. There's no official judge or standards body monitoring this hobbyist competition.

And we're supposed to believe them because it took place in a church?

Next week, Salon will report about the guy in a threelegged race at the Scientology picnic who tripped on a sprinkler and wound up beating Carl Lewis' long jump distances.

Re:Record, says who?

[krzysztof]

Actually it took place at the Lexington Scrabble Club, and there were about 30 other people there to witness the game. I guess by the end there was a pretty big crowd watching.

Re:Record, says who?

[Paradise Pete]

one of them spell a dubiously-admitted word

As fancy scrabble words go, I'd say quixotry is surprisingly legit. If I were in a situation where I wanted to say something like "Enough of your quixotry," no other word would work nearly as well.

Only 100 points?

[XxtraLarGe]

Unimpressed by Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game?

I suppose a 100-point game of Scrabble isn't too bad for a professional basketball player. Of course, I can't imagine when he would have had time to ever play scrabble with all of his other extracurricular activities...

Wow!

[Megane]

Holy disestablishmentarianism, Batman!

There's room for debate

[Chris Pimlott]

Scrabble is very much a tactical game; what you can do at any time is dependant on the actions of the other players. For example, you could get a much higher score than normal if you had a poor opponent who kept setting you up for easy triples,

In this case, though, it doesn't look like that was going on. The other player had a pretty strong game himself. In the end, the comments from the 'serious' players just sound like bitterness.

Congrats to the new champ.

Re:'zas', 'em'?

[fluffywuffy]

I like 'es' and 'em' ;-)

Flatfish?

[fatphil]

"... isn't a common word."

WTF? I've known the word since I was a kid. It's a perfectly common word in English.
Most of the rest of the words used in competitive scrabble are just plain bullshit. I believe that when challenged, a player should have to provide a definition, _and_ it should be present in a universally accepted dictionary (e.g. Oxford Shorter, not words marked archaic etc.) . Then it would be a challenge of English language, as in the language used to communicate, vocabulary rather than of just wanky lists of clique-assembled non-words, or historical misspellings.

FatPhil

Re:Flatfish?

[krzysztof]

I believe that when challenged, a player should have to provide a definition, _and_ it should be present in a universally accepted dictionary (e.g. Oxford Shorter, not words marked archaic etc.)

This wouldn't accomplish much, aside from making people memorize long lists of definitions along with long lists of words.

The Scrabble dictionary already is a list of words found in one of several universally accepted dictionaries. That's how it was created.

Fear the carpenters !

[jalet]

A carpenter 2000 years ago founded the most powerful multinational company on earth, and now this !

Is he still planning to pitch game 6?

[Tetrad_of_doom]

I think it is great that Carpenter uses his off day to play a little Scrabble and set a record, but I'd prefer he just be ready to pitch for the Cardinals against the Tigers in game 6. He shouldn't just assume that they'll clinch the series tonight.

Re:Scrabble Without a Dictionary...

[wishmechaos]

Sometimes me and my friends play what we call Drunk Scrabble. The rules state that if you can pronounce a word, and make up a definition that sounds credible, it's valid. No real words are accepted, unless they're really funny words.

It's not serious at all, but it's way more fun to play!